Biography

Sri Anandamoyi Ma was a spiritual teacher, Guru, saint and a mystic from Bengal, and hailed as one of prominent mystics of the 20th century. During her times, she was considered the embodiment of spiritual bliss and her name literally means Joy Permeated Mother.

Early Life

She was born as Nirmala Sundari on 30 April 1896 to Bipinbihari Bhattacharya and Mokshada Sundari Devie in Kheora, Brahmanbaria District, British India, in what is now Bangladesh.

At the age of thirteen, in 1908, she was married. She spent 5 years after her marriage at her brother-in-law's home, where she was in a trancelike state much of the time.

When she was about 17, she went to live with her husband in Ashtagram. It was here that a devout neighbor, Harakumar, developed a habit of addressing her as "Ma", and prostrated before her morning and evening.

In 1918, they went on to live in Bajitpur, where she became famous for her beauty. Here they stayed till 1924, while she went deeper into her trances. On his return from the office at the end of the working day, her husband often found her lying on the kitchen floor, the food half cooked or burnt.

On the full moon night of August 1922, at midnight, 26-year old Ma went through the actions of spiritual initiation - all by herself.

Members of her husband's family did not respond to his wife’s strange behavior as calmly as he did. While his relatives suggested he remarry, he became her first disciple in 1922.

The Dhaka Period

In 1924 she moved to Shahbag with her husband where he had been appointed caretaker of the gardens of the Nawab of Dhaka.

During this period she used to manifest the ecstasy that resembled Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.

In 1926 she set up a Kali temple in the Siddheshwari area and devoted herself to spirituality.

She underwent a mystic experience while praying in the temple one day. Henceforth, she became known as Anandamoyi Ma, meaning the Joy Permeated Mother. She set up an ashram at Ramna within the precinct of the Ramna Kali Mandir. Though her parents were Vaishnavas, she followed the Tantric creed.

Scholars and followers were attracted to Anandamoyi Ma's spiritualism, though she called herself "a little unlettered child".

The Dehradun Period

In 1932, Anandamoyi Ma went to Dehradun with her husband and started working there. She traveled across the subcontinent to enlighten others. Several ashrams, and seats of learning hospitals were established in her name at Ramna (near Shahbag) and Kheora in Bangladesh, and Benares, Kankhal and other areas in India. Twenty-five ashrams are named after her.

She also renovated many dilapidated holy places, including the Naimisharanya, where she set up a temple there and arranged for the recitation of holy names and the performance of kirtan and other religious rites.

At this times people like Arnaud Desjardins, the French producer of sprititual films, Melita Maschmann, the German novelist, and Dr. Collin Turnbull, the English author, became her disciples.

Kamala Nehru, wife of the future prime Minster, Jawaharlal Nehru, became a devotee in 1933. Anandamoyi was then staying at a small temple in Dehradun, while Pandit Nehru was incarcerated by the British in Dehradun jail. Later she took Kamala to the Ambika temple in Kajpur to perform a three-day yajna. She gave to her daughter Indira the rosary which Mataji had given her.

Mahatma Gandhi came to hear of Anandamayi through Kamala and sent his aid, Jamnalal Bajaj, to see her. He in turn became a devotee. After the unexpected death of Bajaj, she went to Wardha to console Mahatma Gandhi.

She visited Ramana Maharshi at his ashram and also met J Krishnamurti.

Although she is mentioned in many books about Indian spiritual teachers, she is notably written about in Paramahansa Yogananda's Autobiography of a Yogi. His meeting with her is recounted in the chapter titled The Bengali "Joy-Permeated Mother", where he wrote:

Father, there is little to tell." She spread her graceful hands in a deprecatory gesture. "My consciousness has never associated itself with this temporary body. Before I came on this earth, Father, I was the same. As a little girl, I was the same. I grew into womanhood, but still I was the same. When the family in which I had been born made arrangements to have this body married, 'I was the same... And, Father, in front of you now, I am the same. Ever afterward, though the dance of creation change[s] around me in the hall of eternity, I shall be the same.

She died on 27 August 1982 and was buried on the banks of the Ganges near the Kankhal Ashram in Haridwar in North India.

Teachings

Anandamoyi never prepared her discourse, wrote anything down, or revised what she had said. It is said that noting down what she said in her discourses was difficult, as the musicality and alliterative word-play of her saying died in writing. Only Brahmachari Kamal Bhattacharjee is said to have had the ability to transcribe her discourse with scrupulous fidelity.

The central theme of her teaching in endless variation is:

The supreme calling of every human being is to aspire to self realization. All other obligations are secondary.

and

Only actions that kindle man's divine nature are worthy of the name of actions.

However she did not ask everyone to become a renunciate. "Everyone is right from his own standpoint," she would say. She did not give formal initiations and refused to be called a guru, as she maintained that "all paths are my paths" and kept telling "I have no particular path".

She did not advocate the same method for all.

How can one impose limitations on the infinite by declaring - this is the only path - and, why should there be so many different religions and sects? Because through everyone of them He gives Himself to Himself, so that each person may advance according to his inborn nature.

Though she was Tantric, Anandamoyi Ma blessed Saivas, Shaktas, Vaishnavas, Muslims and Christians equally. Even now, the Muslim population of Kheora still refer to her as "our own Ma".

She taught how to live a God-centered life in the world and provided the powerful living inspiration to enable thousands to aspire to this most noble ideal. Her way of teaching involved jokes, songs and instructions on everyday life along with long discourses, meditation and reading of scriptures.

Photos

Locations

Indore Ashram

Type:

Ashram

Details:

In the midst of the large and busy city of Indore, is the quiet haven of Mata Anandamayi Peeth Ashram. The well-kept two acre plot contains three beautiful temples. The temple dedicated to Sri Anandamayi Ma is the heart of the ashram.

The ashram is located at 18 Agra-Bombay Road, next to Mahatma Gandhi Medical College.

Special Events:

Many holy festivals such as Krishna Janmashtami (the birth celebration of Lord Krishna), Durga Puja (the worship of the Divine Mother) and Deepawali (the Festival of Lights) are joyfully and beautifully celebrated in the ashram.

The main observance of the year is the five-day celebration of the birth of Sri Anandamayi Ma. During this period, the ashram is in full festive array and filled with joyful devotees. The days pass with yoga classes, spiritual discourses by visiting holy men and women, kirtan (group singing of the Names of God) and pujas (ritual worship).

Daily Schedule & Opening Hours:

In addition to the formal daily worship that is done here, all meet here every evening for devotional singing and prayers.

Attractions, activities, and more to see:

The Matri Smriti Museum which beautifully houses items used, worn or blessed by Sri Anandamayi Ma, thus preserving Her physical power and presence in the world today.

Accomodation:

There is also a large guest house for college students who wish to live in an ashram environment and study spirituality along with their standard examination subjects.

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Books & Media

Anandamayi Ma has inspired millions of individuals of diverse faiths and circumstances―from Prime Ministers, artists, and industrialists to shopkeepers, beggars and monks including Mahatma Gandhi, Indira Gandhi, Jawarharlal Nehru, Former Prime Minister of Canada, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, the Queen Mother of Greece, and the Former President of India, Ragendra Prasad.

Random Quote

It’s so beautiful, to not know, to never know, what’s going to happen next, what thought will pop up, what fizzly alive sensation will dance, what sound will arise out of nowhere, what word will be spoken, how this bodymind will move or be moved. Even though we sometimes forget, or do not admit it, we all live here, as we did when we were children, in this limitless space of profound not knowing, and wonder, endless wonder.